Cinnamon Crackers
by Sachimi
Summary: Kyo never really thought about what he liked to eat before either, but Kazuma's favorites sounded good to him. And he had always liked miso in soup./ Kyo moves in with Kazuma as a child and picks up eating habits.


**I Like Cinnamon Crackers**

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket. Wouldn't it be amazing if I did?

I have update fever. I wanted to put something up a.s.a.p but I'm still working on the new chapters for my other stories.

But I was inspired to write this and couldn't stop! I have a few more one shots that I want to get up here and now that I'm on summer, I can finally get around to it. (And, well, updating my other stories.)

_********* Important note: Story set the day Kyo moves into Kazuma's home as a child.**_

I hope you like it! _Please read! Please enjoy!_ **Please review** and tell me what you think! 

I Would LOVE to hear what everyone has to think about this story because I feel like it's SO different from what I usually write. I was actually nervous about putting it up. The only reason it's here is because it's... you know... done... So please **REVIEW! **

Anyway ENJOY and know (reader of my other stories) that I will update soon.

* * *

"Now I'm not a very good cook, Kyo," Kazuma told him. He set the small boy's luggage down in his new room and turned back into the hallway toward the kitchen "For tonight at least we should get take out."

Kyo watched him from the entrance hall warily. He had stepped out of his shoes like he had seen Kazuma do when he walked through the door but had not moved further into house. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, running his hands up and down the straps of his back pack as he gazed around the unfamiliar living room from his spot in the doorway.

The boy's silence did not go unnoticed by Kazuma. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled briefly before he turned to him. "Kyo,"

Kyo visibly tensed at his name. His eyes widen and the grip on his backpack straps increased. He snapped his head in Kazuma's direction.

"I have some take-out menus over here if you want to take a look." Kazuma smiled and held up several glossy sheets of for proof. "I think I have one from every restaurant in town by now so we'll have plenty of choices." He took the portable phone off the receiver before he took a seat at the table. He spread the menus over the table's polished surface, looking them over patiently.

Kyo lingered in the doorway for a few moments longer before he hesitantly stepped forward into the room. Slowly and cautiously he approached the table, peeling off his back pack from his back and setting it to the side.

Kazuma glanced up when Kyo took a seat across from him. "Ah. Thank you for joining me. I'm not sure what I want to eat tonight."

Large golden-red eyes stared at him before looking away out the window, then down at the menu selection. Slowly, he lifted one from the table. Kyo's nose twitched distastefully at the options listed on the menu as he turned it over in his hands.

Kazuma chuckled. "Well Kyo," He asked once the boy had discarded the menu with a final grimace. "What do you like?"

Kyo's eyes flashed to Kazuma's. After a long moment he glanced out the window once more to the darkening sky before shrugging deeply. "I dunno" he mumbled in a quiet voice, leaning his orange haired head against his propped arm to gaze at the night view of Kazuma's patio.

Kazuma reached across the table and gently pulled the menu Kyo had showed a clear disinterest in toward him. After glancing it over quickly, he set it on the ground apart from the others "Do you have a favorite type of food or maybe meal?"

From across the table he shrugged again, eyes trained on that fluttered around in circles around the soft glow of the patio lamp.

The man looked down at the remaining menus spread over the table's suffer. "I guess I'll have to try to fund something everyone likes then, won't I?"

The sound of rustling paper drew Kyo's attention back to him. He turned his head slowly and watched Kazuma shuffle through the menus, searching diligently for something particular underneath the clutter. Several sheets pushed off the sides as he dug through the accumulation until he finally smiled, pulling a laminated menu to the surface. Victory shined in his eyes.

"Ah-ha!" Kazuma tried his best to push the remaining sheets into a nearly presentable pile "Here we are." He lifted the red menu with a green boarder he had unearthed for Kyo to see.

Kyo stood on his knees and pushed his palms against the table, straining to read the text printed on the sheet from his spot across from Kazuma. He squinted and read aloud the bold header "Big Gino's?" he spoke the name oddly and made a face at how unfamiliar it sounded.

"A student of mine told me that everyone loves Italian food. We'll just get some of the more popular dishes to be safe." He offered Kyo the paper. "Have you tried it before?"

Kyo shook his head and took the menu Kazuma handed him and watched him dial the number.

Kyo found out that night he didn't like Italian food. He tried to like it but he thought there was something about it that he couldn't get past. He tried each dish after Kazuma had tried it but he didn't take to the spaghetti, lasagna, or the ravioli.

Kazuma didn't like any of it all that much either.

"But they say that everyone loves Italian food," He told Kyo as they wandered down the aisle at the market the next day. "I thought you might if you tried it."

"You didn't even look like you liked it when you were eating it." Kyo commented as they passed the produce.

Kazuma chuckled "I guess I couldn't pretend well." He said. "They did have good breadsticks, though."

Kyo paused.

They did have good breadsticks.

He only just realized that he really liked them.

"Kyo," The boy glanced up at Kazuma "If you want, you can go and pick out some foods you like. But it would probably be better if they didn't need much preparation…"

"I don't want anything."

Grey eyes scanned the prices printed on the prepackaged mushrooms "Are you sure?" He lifted the container and held it close to the light for inspection "You might not like the foods I like."

Kyo stepped aside to let an elderly couple pass him. "I don't care what I eat." He said, before he peeked into Kazuma's basket. His eyes widened in terror when he recognized a long, thin, green and white vegetable. Immediately he stepped back from the basket.

Kazuma glanced down at him "Do you not like leeks?" he asked as he set the mushrooms down against them.

Kyo's shot up to him "No." He said fast and looked away "I don't remember. I don't not like them. I had them when I was little." He whirled around to hide his face flushed with panic.

He hated leeks with a burning passion. If leeks took a personified form he would try to smother leeks in their sleep. If he could he would ban the harvest of leeks and demand that all leek crops be burned. Anyone caught distributing leeks could be treated as a hostile criminal.

But he didn't say any of that to Kazuma. He kept his eyes focused on the distant display of cinnamon crackers.

He used to have cinnamon crackers for snacks. But only for snacks, his mother said, because too many wouldn't be-

"Leeks are very healthy," Kyo winced at Kazuma's words. He turned around slowly to face him. "I actually like them a lot. But I can tell some people don't share my opinion." He said and began to walk down the aisle.

Kyo's eyes narrowed very slightly before he followed Kazuma. "What foods do you like to eat?"

Kazuma paused in front of the canned goods. Kyo slowed behind him, watching him think. "Huh…" he pressed his hand against his hip. "I never thought of it before. But if I had to say something…" He fell into a brief silence, searching for the right words. "Traditional foods," He nodded and reached for pre-made miso soup.

Kyo's brows furrowed "What kind of food is that? Food you have on special occasions?"

"No," Kazuma shook his head with a smile "It's like ordinary food. Food that had roods in-"

"Roots?" Kyo made a face.

"Like in culture." Kazuma laughed. "I'm very old fashioned with food. Like… with miso." He held up a can of pre-made miso for Kyo to see. "I only like miso in soup. I joke that that's the only place it belongs. He set it alongside the six other cans he had collected in his basket "I like ordinary dishes; I don't like experimenting with flavors. I even like ongiri's plain. I'm pretty boring aren't I?" He chuckled.

Kyo shrugged.

He never really thought about what he liked to eat before either, but Kazuma's favorites sounded good to him. He always did like ordinary foods.

And he had always liked miso in soup.

Right now, he couldn't remember if miso was good in anything else. It probably wasn't.

Kyo held back a genuine laugh. Who would even think to put miso in anything other than soup where it belongs?

He smirked, shaking his head at how ridiculous people could be.

"I think we're just about done here if you're certain you don't want anything."

Kyo glanced back at Kazuma and then into his basket. "That's all you're getting?" He couldn't think of what kind of meal could be made of mushrooms, leeks, dried seaweed, six cans of miso soup, several packets of microwavable rice, and some precooked sauce.

"I'm not much of a cook." Kazuma explained "I only get things I can work with easily. But I bet if I try with a cook book, I could make something good." He smiled "We can try if you want."

Kyo gave him a skeptical look before smiling "Okay, we can try."

Kazuma moved to a register as they exited the aisle into the open front lane of the store. Kyo's footsteps audibly slowed behind him as he approached the clerk at the far end of the lane. The man stopped and glanced over his shoulder at Kyo.

The boy hadn't noticed Kazuma had stopped moving yet; he kept trailing behind him at a sluggish pace with his head turned over his shoulder, gazing at something behind him. Kazuma glanced over Kyo's orange head at the large display of packaged cinnamon crackers on sale he had passed without even noticing.

Kyo collided with Kazuma's back with a small "Oof!" He stumbled back a few steps, but steadied himself before losing his balance.

"Are you positive you don't want anything Kyo?" Kazuma asked.

Kyo looked straight forward "I don't want anything." He said through clenched teeth. He didn't know much about traditional foods, but he could tell from the packaging that cinnamon crackers didn't fit into that category. He marched forward toward the register.

Kazuma sighed and turned to follow him.

* * *

That night Kazuma tried to cook a real meal with the ingredients he bought. Kyo helped with the cooking because Kazuma wasn't lying when he told him he wasn't a very good cook. He didn't have very much cooking skills at all. The two of them managed to make a fairly edible meal.

But in the end, they just heated up some miso soup.

"So you like miso soup, too, huh?" Kazuma smiled, setting Kyo's bowl down for him.

Kyo nodded. "I only like miso in soup." He mumbled into the bowl. He looked up at Kazuma to see him smiling.

Over the next few weeks Kazuma could see that Kyo was warming up to him. He was beginning to smile more and he was beginning to get more comfortable around the house. He even began to take lessons at the dojo.

Kyo was getting used to his new home. He really did only like miso in soup now, and he was determined to get better and better at martial arts. For his own safety he helped Kazuma with the food because the kitchen turned out to be much more dangerous than he had previously thought it to be.

But as for leeks… no matter how many times Kazuma would buy them he couldn't get himself to like them. Not even the smell.

"Well, Kyo… I have plenty leftover," Kazmua smiled at the small boy sitting never to him at the table. He held out the plate of half burnt leeks.

Kyo's eyes narrowed darkly "I don't like leeks, Shishou." He hissed.

Kazuma smiled and set the bowl down. It was the first time Kyo told him that.

At the market the next day, Kazuma and Kyo strolled the aisles with a list in hand. They had come into a much more efficient habit of writing down what they would need and buying foods and ingredients they could actually use.

"Is there anything you want to get before we go, Kyo?" Kazuma asked throughout the venture, just like he had every time he and Kyo went to the market.

Kyo shook his head. "I don't want anything." He now had two reasons not to like his cinnamon crackers anymore. Traditionally, they had to be incorrect and earlier that week he had heard Kazuma saying to another student "I'm not a fan of sweets."

Kyo realized then that he wasn't either. He didn't care for sweet foods much to begin with, but once he was in the store, all his effort was on keeping his mind off of the cinnamon crackers. He wasn't even sure that they were considered a desert, but they tasted sweet to him.

He kept his eyes focused on his feet as he passed the display of the cinnamon crackers to the register.

"Kyo, do you-"

"No."

The next day while Kyo was at school Kazuma came back to the market at bought a two boxes from the display. On the way home, he opened one and bit into a cinnamon coated cracker.

He wrinkled his nosed at the dry, over sweetened tasted, and bit into it again as he turned the corner, taking his time wandering over the pavement toward his home. When he finally made it to his steps he managed to put down five full cracker sheets, the last two he did without any trace of a grimace lingering on his face. He actually sort of enjoyed the last one. He set the bag he carried the unopened box in the door step and folded the box top closed for the other one before he entered the house with a smile.

"I feel like this would go good with tea."

He set the box down at the table and walked to the kitchen.

When Kyo got home and saw Kazuma's shoes in the doorway, he dropped his backpack and pried off his own. "Shishou!" He called, hurrying into the house. He stopped short in the doorway of the dining room.

Kazuma snapped a cracker sheet in half and glanced at Kyo in the doorway "Oh, welcome back, Kyo." He smiled, and popped a piece of cinnamon cracker into his mouth "Are you hungry?"

"What are you eating?" Kyo asked slowly.

"Cinnamon crackers," Kazuma swallowed. "I usually don't like foods like this, but I'm getting used to them. They're not that bad. Did you know they're on sale?"

Kyo knew very well that they were on sale. He didn't exactly know how sales worked, but he knew that they had been on special for a while.

"They're pretty good, do you want some?" Kazuma asked. "I have plenty more."

Kyo came over slowly and same down next to him. He reached out and took a full cracker sheet from the box. He could smell it from where he was sitting. Carefully, he snapped it along the barely visible contours etched in. There was nothing traditional about these other than they'd always been his favorite. If someone wanted to tell him these weren't sweet he would fight them. He took a bite. They had more flavor than one cracker should in all the best ways. Cinnamon crackers were perfect, even if he would only ever have them as a snack.

Kazuma smile at him. "Do you like these, Kyo?" He asked

"Yeah…" he managed to say with his mouth full "I've always liked cinnamon crackers."

* * *

Well there you have it!** (I feel like I got little Kyo out of character, But he's with Kazuma, it's not like he's with Yuki. If he was with anyone else he's be all up in everyone's face, but he's with he's role model! You all SAW how he was with his 'Shishou ^_^ ' when Kazuma first got back from the mountains!)**

**(Can you tell I'm self conscience about this story?) **

I have no idea why I wrote this! I just wanted to write about Kyo and Kazuma and so I thought… why not this?

Ha? Well! I would LOVE to hear feedback. Because you know, this is so different for me… Seriously. It doesn't seem to align with ANYTHING I've put up before and I think the only reason I published it is because I finished it.

**But seriously! I'll have UPDATES up for other stories soon! PINKY SWEAR!**

With Love!

As Always!

Sachi-Chan!


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